Native Americans

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Kady Milligan

Native American Lesson Plan

Appropriate for 4^th grade NYS History

NYS History Standards:

Standard 1- History of the United States and New York

·         Student will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Standard 2- World History

·         Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Standard 3-Geography

·         Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live-local, national, and global-including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.

Technology Standards:

Standard 2- Information Systems

·         Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information and as a tool to enhance learning.

·         Students will access, generate, process and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

Standard 5-Computer Technology

·         Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to design, construct, use, and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and environmental needs

Overview:

The purpose of this lesson is to develop a basic understanding of the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes and where they are located in New York State.  Different issues to be investigated include:

·         Creating a brochure on Microsoft Publisher

·         Exploring similarities and differences between the two tribes

·         Where the six tribes are located on the map

·         Creating short stories with partners

Focus:

·         To have students become aware of the Native American tribes that were located in New York State and to have students create a brochure using Microsoft Publisher with different facts about the tribes.

Materials:

·         New York State map hand out for each student

·         New York State overhead transparency

·         Pens & Pencils

·         Computers with Microsoft Publisher

·         Grading Rubrics for group presentation

Initiating Activity:

·         Hand out a blank map of New York State to each student.

·         Begin the lesson by doing a quick review of what we have learned so far in our unit about the Native Americans.

·         Ask students several questions:

o        What tribes have we learned about so far?

o        What do we know about the Native Americans (food, clothing, housing, etc.)?

o        What was the name of the tribe we were talking about that was found in NYS?

·         Use overhead transparency to display the map of the Iroquois Confederacy or the “Five Nations” and have the students follow along by filling in the correct word in each blank. 

o        If we were Native Americans, what tribe would we belong to?

Content & Activities:

·        Earlier in the week the class read two books:

o       The Iroquois (A First Americans Book) by Virginia Driving

o       The Algonquin by Richard Gaines

·        The students created a story jar (two jars are placed in the front of the classroom and students write a sentence and draw a picture about “big idea’s” that they thought were important and placed them in either the Iroquois Jar or the Algonquin Jar)

·        Have all students come together to discuss what was found in each of the jars from the readings and create 3 piles from the jars (facts that only obtain to Algonquin, similarities of the two, and facts that only obtain to the Iroquois).

·        Ask the students questions about the book:

o       What did you think was the most interesting about the two tribes?

o       Are you like the Native Americans in any way?

o       Would you have liked to live like the Native Americans?

Exercise:

·        Students will be paired off into partners.  Using Microsoft Publisher students will create a brochure about the similarities and differences of the Algonquin and Iroquois tribes using the following websites as well as information that was mentioned in the readings:

o       http://www.bigorrin.org/algonquin_kids.htm

o       http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Native_Americans.html

o       http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Native_Americans.html

·        Brochures must include pictures (from the internet or hand drawn), where the tribe lives, how they dress, what they eat, religions, and any other information about either tribe..BE CREATIVE!!

·        Brochures must have at least 2 similarities and 4 differences

·        Students will each print their brochure and pair up with another group and share their brochures

·        Students will regroup and are to write a short story as if they were in the life of a member of either the Iroquois or Algonquin nation.  Students must be creative; this can be a funny or scary short story.  For example they could discuss a battle that they encountered or a journey they were going on or a weekly journal entry about their life experiences.

·        The short story must include:

o       Description of the setting/location

o       Daily activities, what is happening-PLOT

o       Description of main characters in the story, make up a name

o       Drawing of one scene in the story

·        Through out the week students will take turns reading their stories and showing the class their brochures

Examination:

·        Students will create their own quiz questions on information that we learned today in class

·        Students will write down 3 questions and the correct answers to their question

·        2 questions that were made from the class will be drawn at random tomorrow and be asked as bonus questions on the quiz

Evaluation:

·        Students will be evaluated on their overall participation in class that day, how well they contributed during review

·        Students will use a rubric to grade other groups presentations

·        Students will be evaluated on how well they performed on the quiz the following day 

"A good teacher is like a candle- it consumes itself to light the way for others."

-Author Unknown

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Kady Milligan
Email: mill2434@mail.plattsburgh.edu
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Last Updated: September 23, 2008
© 2008 Kady Milligan